To All Members:
We have been advised that there are bills being introduced to provide presumptive disability benefits related to the current pandemic for certain individual groups/job titles of public employees.
Based upon the experience we all endured following 9/11, and the difficulty and length of time it took to finalize the 9/11 presumptive disability legislation, it is the position of the NYS Public Employee Conference that legislation covering disparate groups/job titles is counterproductive, and should be discouraged.
There should be blanket presumptive disability legislation which encompasses all public employees who, regardless of their respective job specifications, are on the front lines of the battle in this pandemic. AssemblyGovernmental Employees Committee Chair Peter Abbate is currently working on such legislation, in hopes of having it included in the state budget, and we support that effort wholeheartedly.
In Unity,
Peter D. Meringolo
